On Sunday at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, in the final of the MPS Group Championships, the 2009 tourney champion (and this year's finalist at Indian Wells), 19-year-old top-seeded #2 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark (residence: Monte Carlo, Monaco), won the title again by defeating 21-year-old unseeded #50 (career high: #35) Olga Govortsova from Minsk, Belarus, 6-2, 7-5 (Caroline is shown with the glassware after the match).

Caroline's prize is $37,000; Olga's is $19,000.

Olga took a 4-1 lead in the 2nd set, and held 2 set points at 5-3. Caroline said: "Olga started playing very well in the second set. Everything she hit was going in. I just started stepping into the court, and after I won that long game at 4-5, I kind of had the advantage. We had so many incredible shots in the match, it was all just about hanging in there in the end." WTA story

Olga said: "I had to change something in the second set, so I just tried to attack every single shot I could. I was trying really hard right until the end. [Caroline] just played too well. It was a good week for me: first tournament on clay this year, first final of the year... I'm very happy with my week."

Caroline and Olga had never before met on the field of combat.

2009 US Open finalist Caroline is now 7-7 in WTA singles finals; she won the New Haven, Eastbourne and Ponte Vedra Beach titles last year, and reached the finals at Madrid, Charleston, Memphis & Bastad. Caroline has a 17-5 match record in 2010.
2009 Moscow finalist Olga is now 0-3 in previous WTA singles finals; she also reached the Memphis final in 2008, and has won 2 ITF singles titles. Olga has a 7-9 match record in 2010, with four of her wins coming in the past week.

Meanwhile at Marbella, Spain, in the final of the Andalucia Tennis Experience, last year's champion in Los Angeles and Palermo, 27-year-old 2nd-seeded #13 Flavia Pennetta of Italy (residence: Verbier, Switzerland), narrowly defeated a quarterfinalist at Roland Garros in 2008 and at Melbourne in 2009, 21-year-old 8th-seeded #36 (career-high: #22) Carla Suarez Navarro from Barcelona, Spain. 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 (Flavia is shown getting acquainted with the hardware after the match).

Flavia's prize is $37,000; Carla's is $19,000.

Flavia said: "I just got the better of [Carla] at the end. It was a tough match from the start. I started well then got a bit tired, and Carla started playing more aggressively. I could have won it in two sets; I had to start all over again in the third, but from 3-all I played very well. I think Carla will have many chances to win this tournament though." WTA story

Carla said: "No one likes losing a final but it was a great week. I defeated some dangerous opponents, so I'm not too disappointed. I was a litle bit tired, but Flavia was the favorite to win the final and I congratulate her. She adjusted well after having very little time to adapt after arriving late from Miami."

Flavia and Carla had played twice before. On red clay at Roland Garros, in the 4th round of the 2008 French Open, Carla defeated Flavia 6-3, 6-2. But early this year, on a hard court in the 2nd round at Auckland, Flavia defeated Carla, 6-2, 6-2.

2010 Auckland finalist Flavia, who won the Miami doubles title last week partnered with Gisela Dulko, is now 9-10 in WTA singles finals. Flavia has a 19-7 singles match record this year.Carla is now 0-2 in WTA singles finals; she also reached the Marbella final last year, when she lost to Jelena Jankovic, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Carla has a 18-8 match record in 2010.

2010: On Monday, April 5 in Marbella, Sorana Cirstea and top seed Victoria Azarenka practiced (practiced smiling, anyway) while Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci played soccer at Puente Romano beach... row 2: At the player party on Wednesday, Vika Azarenka was astonished by the flamenco dancing skills of Anabel Medina... Sorana Cirstea turned 20 on Wednesday, and was honored with a tennis ball cake... On Thursday, tourney director (and 1994 Wimbledon champion) Conchita Martinez admired Kim Clijsters ability to put away the vegetables even after a tough loss...

Virginia "Vivi" Ruano Pascual is shown during a ceremony on Sunday, April 11. The loss to Aravane was to be the last singles match of Vivi's career [she was later talked into taking a wild card entry at Madrid]; she will play doubles until the end of this season. Vivi reached a career high of #28 at singles in 1999, but will be better remembered for her doubles titles, which include 10 Grand Slam doubles titles, 2 partnered with Anabel Medina Garrigues, and 8 with Paola Suarez. Vivi, still in great shape at 36, has won over $6 million in prize money during her career.

The 32-player main draw for Ponte Vedra Beach has 8 seeds, with no 1st-round byes. There are 4 qualifiers in the main draw. Qualifying (3 rounds) begins on Saturday; qualifying finals are on Sunday. Main draw play begins on Monday at 10am.
Formerly the Bausch & Lomb Championships, this tourney was held at Amelia Island Plantation for 29 years before moving to Ponte Vedra Beach for 2009. Ponte Vedra Beach is located in northeast Florida, 20 minutes southeast of Jacksonville. tourney Twitter blogSawgrass Country Club covers 1250 acres with 13 Har-Tru green clay tennis courts, including a 3800-seat stadium court. Former ATP great Tony Trabert is a prominent club member.

Caroline said: "The first clay court match of the year is always a bit tricky. I'm happy to be through in two sets... Some matches I've served harder, but here I was really focused on getting a lot of first serves in. I prefer to have more first serves in than to serve maybe 10 miles harder ... especially on clay, because the ball is slower anyway." FTU story

Melanie said: "It's weird, because when I'm down a break point or something, I know exactly what I'm going to do in that point... I already know where my ball's going to go. I'm not going to go for anything huge, but I play aggressively because I'm confident in my shots, going for it." FTU story

Anastasia said: "[Bethanie] played some really good points when I had match point... She was very aggressive. It's a bit frustrating, because you want to finish the match, especially one like today. We played so long."

(March, 2009) The Andalucia Tennis Experience was added to the WTA calendar in late January, 2009. It was originally slated to be a $220,000 tourney, but the prize money was later increased to $500,000 when both Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic entered ($220,000 tourneys are allowed only 1 top-10 player).